Arsene Wenger slammed Arsenal’s “extremely poor” defensive display at Bayern Munich as their record 5-1 defeat left them with just a slender chance of progressing in the Champions League.
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Thomas Mueller scored twice on Wednesday while Robert Lewandowski, David Alaba and Arjen Robben were also on target as Pep Guardiola’s Bayern emphatically avenged their 2-0 defeat at the Emirates Stadium a fortnight ago.
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This was Arsenal’s joint heaviest away defeat in Europe, equalling the 4-0 drubbing at AC Milan in the last 16 in February 2012.
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France striker Olivier Giroud scored Arsenal’s consolation goal with 20 minutes left, but with two games to go, Arsenal have only a mathematical chance of reaching the knock-out phase after Dinamo Zagreb’s 2-1 defeat at Olympiakos.
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The Gunners have three points along with Dinamo, while Olympiakos and Bayern both have nine with the Germans top of Group F on goal difference.
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It means Arsenal must win their final two matches at home to Zagreb and away to Olympiakos, plus hope Bayern beat the Greek side at the Allianz Arena in a fortnight to progress.
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“You have to give credit to Bayern for their quality, but we made life easy for them and we were extremely poor defensively. We weren’t at the races,” admitted Wenger.
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“We did well going forward, we created chances, but with a defensive display like that, you are going nowhere.”
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